Native Languages of the Americas: Maricopa Legends and Traditional Stories

This is our collection of links to Maricopa stories and folktales that can be read online.
We have indexed our Native American legends section
by tribe to make them easier to locate; however, variants on the same
legend are often told by American Indians from different tribes, especially if those tribes are kinfolk or neighbors to
each other. In particular, though these legends come from the Maricopa tribe, the traditional stories of
related tribes like the
Yuma and Mojave are very similar.

Enjoy the stories! If you would like to recommend a Maricopa legend for this page or think one of the ones on here
should be removed, please contact us and let us know.

Cipas
(also spelled Isacipa's, Sipa, Shipa, Thoshipa, and other ways):
The Maricopa creator god. Unlike Native cultures in the rest of North America, the Maricopa and other
Sonoran tribes of southeast California and southwestern Arizona did not consider their Creator to be
a benevolent spirit or a friend to humankind-- he was capricious and dangerous,
and was eventually poisoned and killed by his own creations after instigating a war among them.

Kokomat
(also spelled Kukumat, Kukuma't, and other ways):
Twin brother of Cipas. He was Cipas' assistant in the creation of humankind,
but after quarreling with his brother, became ruler of the underworld.